Economic diversification, freight flows and transnational expansion in dubai hub port-city

Studies on urbanisation and urban patterns in the Persian Gulf Region (with an exception for Iran and Iraq) have discussed the modern ‘Gulf City’ and oil-driven cities starting from the early 1960s. In the case of UAE in general and Dubai in particular, the wealth brought by the oil has been invested to attract foreign direct investments and to diversify the economy by means of massive capital-intensive infrastructures and megaprojects. This chapter review the changing port-city relationships with relation to these interventions, in terms of the contribution of fright flows through ports and their ancillary infrastructures to urbanization and economic growth. Although the primarily function of a port is transport integration, a port facilitated by relevant infrastructures may perform as an urban centre to generate employment and contribute in the economy, redefining the conventional relation at the local, regional and global level. Here, Dubai is studied as one of the Arab oil-states of the Region, which is not burdened to history in order to attract investment, business, tourists, etc., yet has made its own model of development triggered preliminary by trade. Here, the argument is based on a reciprocal relationship between the port and the city, since the advent of a free port and a proliferation of mosaics of free zones, which are key elements in diversifying the economy and logistics hub-city making.